Today’s Yahrtzeits & History – 11 Av

Rav Hillel of Paritch, author of Pelach Harimon (1795-1864). A talmid muvhak of Rav Avraham Dov, Rav of Zhitomer. He served as Rav of Patrich, and later succeeded Rav Baruch Mordechai in Bobroisk. His other writings are included in Imrei Noam and Likutei Beurim (a commentary on various works of the Mitteler Rebbe of Lubavitch).

Rav Yitzchak Blazer, author of Pri Yitzchak and Kochvei Ohr (1837-1907). One of the leading disciples of Rav Yisrael Salanter, Rav Yitzchak was born in Vilna, married at the age of 15, and moved to Kovno. At the age of 15, he became the Rabbi of St. Petersburg (hence his “other” name, Reb Itzele Peterberg), a position he held for 16 years. He spent the last 3 years of his life in Yerushalayim.

-Rav Aharon Perlow, the Stoliner-Warsaw Rebbe (1942)

Today in History – 11 Av

· A shul located in Callinicum on the Euphrates was looted and burned by Church officials, 388 CE. St. Ambrose, one of the four Latin doctors of the Catholic church, defended the action. He reprimanded Roman Emperor Theodosius the Great for ordering the local Bishop to pay restitution, even though expropriation was illegal under Roman law. St. Ambrose offered to burn the shul in Milan on his own.
· Arabs wrested control of most of Eretz Yisrael from the Byzantines, 636.
· Anti-Jewish riots in Arnstadt, Germany, 1264.
· Anti-Jewish riots in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), 1360, in which many Jews were killed, and the rest expelled.
· The date of a letter written by a Jesuit Missionary traveling though China which describes his meetings with Ai T’ien, a Chinese Jewish teacher, 1605. Most of what we know regarding the old Kaifeng Jewish community is from this correspondence.
· The Persian army under Nadir Kuli lays siege to reoccupy Baghdad, but is surrounded at Kirkuk by the Ottomans and forced to flee in disorder, 1733. This day was celebrated as a holiday by the Jews.
· Edict of expulsion of Bohemian Jews was revoked by Empress Maria Theresa, 1748.
· The emperor of Bohemia ordered that Jews who volunteered for army service should be allowed to marry outside the restricted quota of marriage of Jews, in 1797.
· The Common Council of New York City revoked the license of a non-Jewish butcher for affixing Jewish seals to non-kosher meat, 1796. This is the earliest act of legal intervention in protection of kashrus in the U.S.
· Arab forces blew up the Latrun pumping station, 1948, cutting off Yerushalayim’s water supply
· Iraq invaded Kuwait, 1990.

{Yahrtzeits licensed to Matzav.com by Manny Saltiel and Anshe.org/Matzav.com Newscenter}

1 COMMENT

Rabbi Hillel of Paritch was originally a chasid of Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl, and then he became a Chasid of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (first Chabad Rebbe) In 1815 he began to travel regularly to Rabbi Dovber (2nd Chabad Rebbe)and, after the latters passing, became a chasid of Rabbi Dovber’s successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, known as the Tzemach Tzedek.

At thirteen he had mastered the Talmud, and at fifteen, the Kabbalistic works of the Arizal. In addition, he trained himself in self-discipline to the point that his body acted only as the Torah prescribes, and even to conform with Kabbalah.